JAPAN
Second arrest in cash theft
Police yesterday arrested a second suspect in the country’s biggest-ever cash robbery, in which US$7.5 million was stolen from a security company last month. Police arrested Yutaka Watanabe, 41, on charges of robbing Nichigetsu Keibihosho in Tachikawa on the outskirts of Tokyo and of assault that seriously injured a company employee, a police spokesman said. Police arrested a 31-year-old man on Wednesday on similar charges.
INDIA
Severe diarrhea kills giraffe
A 15-year-old female giraffe has died of severe diarrhea caused by a viral infection at New Delhi’s zoo, an official said on Thursday. “She wouldn’t eat and began showing symptoms of diarrhea around early evening on the 24th of May,” the curator of the National Zoological Park in the capital Riaz Ahmad Khan said. “She died the next morning. A post-mortem report showed massive internal bleeding in her stomach and doctors said she died because of a viral infection.” The giraffe, named Anita, bore four calves, two of which lived in the same zoo as their mother. An older male calf borne by Anita died earlier this year when his neck snapped after he got stuck trying to grab food from the branches of a tree. The country’s zoos have been the targets of fierce criticism from wildlife experts in the past over concerns including poor sanitation, contaminated food and overcrowding.
AUSTRALIA
Dead dolphins stir outrage
Animal activists expressed outrage yesterday at the discovery of two dead snub fin dolphins tied to mangroves and weighted with a concrete slab, saying every death took the rare species nearer to extinction. The dolphins were found in wetlands in the Great Barrier Reef region last week by a recreational fisherman. Police said they suspected they were caught in a net cast by illegal fishing crews. “The killing and concealing of these two dolphins is totally reprehensible and completely out of line with what the community expects,” the World Wildlife Fund’s Richard Leck told national radio. Authorities are seeking leads on the animals, which they suspect could have been accidentally caught in nets, but then dumped among the mangroves to hide the killings, which fishing boat operators are required to report. Only discovered in 2005, the snub fin species is now on the brink of extinction, with just 1,000 left in the wild, Leck said.
POLAND
Auschwitz sign moving
A council that oversees Auschwitz-Birkenau has decided that the notorious sign that once spanned the main gate at Auschwitz will not return to its original spot after being repaired for damage during a 2009 theft. Pawel Sawicki, a spokesman for the memorial site, said the sign bearing the Nazis’ cynical slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) will be housed in a planned exhibition center to open in coming years. It was accepted by the International Auschwitz Council at a two-day meeting that ended on Thursday.
ISRAEL
Sammy Ofer passes away
A businessman at the center of a recent scandal involving trade with Iran has died at age 89. Media reported that billionaire Sammy Ofer died yesterday after a long illness. Ofer’s name was recently in the news after the US government sanctioned one of his companies for doing business with Iran’s national shipping company. Along with his brother, Ofer owned one of the world’s biggest container shipping companies.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
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